Ovide Lamontagne, the conservative candidate in the primary race for Judd Gregg’s open seat in New Hampshire distinguishes himself from the “establishment” GOP candidate, Kelly Ayotte, who supported Sotomayor:
“Justice Stevens deserves the thanks of the people for his service to the country, including his service in the U.S. Navy during World War II. But we must not let our gratitude for that service obscure the fact that Justice Stevens has, over the course of his long career on the Supreme Court, become part of the liberal majority of judicial activists who have eroded the plain meaning of the Constitution and dramatically undermined the ability of Americans to govern themselves.
“Unlike my primary opponent Kelly Ayotte, who said she would have voted ‘yes’ for Sonia Sotomayor, the liberal judicial activist who was the first Obama Supreme Court nominee, I took a firm stand against Sotomayor. Like other authentic conservatives around the country, I saw that Judge Sotomayor had embraced liberal judicial activism in saying that courts of appeal are ‘where policy is made’ and that ‘a wise Latina woman . . . would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male.’
“Justice Sotomayor’s record, including her ruling in favor of racial preferences against the New Haven firefighters who had been denied jobs and promotions, showed that she was a clear liberal activist. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed Sotomayor’s decision in the New Haven case before she joined it. Sotomayor’s first year on the Court has proven that she is still the same far-left activist that Kelly Ayotte endorsed.
“Those of us who care about democracy and self-government must say ‘no’ to the Obama plan to pack the Court with a new generation of liberal judicial activists. We must oppose liberal judicial activism on the Court. As a U.S. Senator, I pledge to stand firm against liberal appointments of judges who would undermine our Constitution and let federal government dictate matters in which it has no business.”